For fans of Titan Quest, the announcement of the long-awaited sequel Titan Quest II last year was a day to celebrate. The original, which introduced some innovative mechanics, such as the dual class system to the ARPG genre, has long been considered one of the genre’s staples. While we are still a ways out from charging headlong back to the world of Titan Quest, I recently had the opportunity to participate in a closed playtest for Titan Quest II.
While the playtest encompassed only a small portion of the first chapter of the upcoming ARPG, it was a wonderful opportunity to dip my toes back into the fantastical world of Ancient Greece. As a fan of the original, I was quite excited to see Grimlore Games take on the world of Titan Quest. As a quick note, the playtest doesn’t represent the finished product and we were only given a small bit of all Titan Quest II has to offer.
Firing up the playtest for the first time, I was greeted with a quick cutscene that gave context to the setting and narrative. After soaking in the visual spectacle, the game opened to a title card and character creator. At the moment, the term character creator might be a bit misleading. It is, in fact, more of a character selector with several prebuilt characters (both male and female) to choose from. While there were no sliders to adjust, there was a nice array of diverse character models to choose from. After selecting a name, my character was pulled right into the action.
“As a fan of the original, I was quite excited to see Grimlore Games take on the world of Titan Quest.”
The first observation upon entering the world is how detailed and beautiful it is. Grimlore has done an excellent job at balancing the look and feel of the original Titan Quest while adding its own flair and design identity to the franchise. In this regard, I give them top marks. The UI, likewise, offers a nice mix of the familiar with the fresh and blends the two wonderfully. If you’ve played the original, you’ll find a recognizable but streamlined experience in the HUD.
Navigating Titan Quest II follows the typical mouse and keyboard combinations associated with modern ARPGs. At the moment, there is no controller support for the playtest, though according to the official Steam page, the final release will offer this support. The only odd note on movement is that by default, the left mouse button is locked to move/interact and cannot be used as an ability slot. This was a bit off-putting at first until I realized that there is an option in the control settings to allow the left mouse button to manage all three. Once switched on, Titan Quest II feels very similar to Diablo 4 regarding movement and navigation.
As for navigating the world, it was nice to see Titan Quest II follow another modern trend in ARPGs of leveraging both vertical space and traversal over obstacles. Scaling up and down cliffsides and ladders or leaping across small chasms are all possible and help the world feel a bit more open and explorable. On the note of exploration, Grimlore has done a great job at adding small knocks and crannies off the main paths that invite players to look under every rock and behind every bush for some hidden pathway or treasure.
Combat, at this phase in development, feels solid but a little clunky at times. Melee, for example, is both satisfying and a bit frustrating. The satisfaction comes in the form of some smooth hit animations unique to each ability used. When mixed with active dodge rolls, melee combat becomes a dance of hitting hard and repositioning. The frustration in the system stems from the AI that seems to swarm as their only option for attack. While it’s fun at first to attempt to dodge out of the way of attacks while also swinging a great axe over your head to crush your foe, it quickly becomes routine and loses some of the fun.
“Titan Quest II feels very similar to Diablo 4 regarding movement and navigation.”
This is offset to some degree by spell casting, which is a real treat in Titan Quest II. Each spell feels impactful and unique while also offering an impressive spectacle. While I don’t typically choose spell casting as my main form of attack, I found it to be exceptionally satisfying in Titan Quest II.
This becomes even more rewarding when you begin to level and customize your abilities. This is handled through the Masteries tab that allows you to pour points into a skill and then add modifiers to develop and tweak its abilities further. The modifiers offer a host of options and really can change the way a skill behaves. While this isn’t a new concept, Grimlore’s implementation of the system works well, is easy to understand and is a lot of fun to use.
“While I don’t typically choose spell casting as my main form of attack, I found it to be exceptionally satisfying in Titan Quest II.”
We were also given access to three of the masteries that will be available at launch (Warfare, Earth and Storm). Back is the dual mastery system that allows you to customize your abilities to fit your playstyle. On my first playthrough, for example, I built a fun battlemage that offered excellent melee combat mixed with some powerful fire spells. The result was an axe-wielding fire caster that was a lot of fun to play. This has always been one of the main charms of the franchise, and I’m glad to see it back and built upon for Titan Quest II.
The difficulty level during the playtest felt a bit inconsistent, with some encounters making me feel unstoppable and others simply stopping me dead in my tracks. This was most felt in the boss encounter at the end of the playtest. While most of the encounters up to that point were fairly easy to manage (other than a few AI swarm moments), the boss battle stood in stark contrast regarding difficulty. While I’m all for a difficult encounter, it was the extreme difference or lack of balance in difficulty that felt a bit off-putting. It wasn’t a major issue, but it did stand out during the playtest.
Overall, though, for the first playtest, I was happy with what Grimlore put together for us. At the moment, Titan Quest II walks the line between the familiar and the fresh without ever leaning too hard on nostalgia. The result is a fun and fresh take on a classic that, while still needing a lot of polish and refinement, is at its core a solid ARPG anchored firmly to its heritage.
